First, the art musings. Most of the stuff in here has been touched upon before, so if you think there's an obvious reponse to what I'm saying, point me to the post while sniggering behind your hand.
The Great Library--Alric's statue has, on its base, the day and month that he defeated Balor, but not the year. Strange, no?
The Ibis Crown--the main room where the Crown is kept is decorated with two alternating friezes; these are similar in general appearance (three faces side by side on the bottom, two groups of three beings each facing each other on the top), but the details are different. In one frieze, the central face is a guy with a big ol' beard; the faces on either side are apparently women, one with done-up hair and one with loose hair. On top, three Ghols on one side are about to go to battle with three humans on the other; two of the humans look like Warriors and the third is much larger, with a beard, a horned helmet, a robe and a sword and shield. I suppose he's the same guy as the central face.
In the other, the side faces are the same, and the central face looks the same except with different hair; it's got a little pointed beard and curling spiky hair like Charon has. On top there are two parties of three Warriors; the guys in the back have their swords pointing up, but the two guys in the front facing each other are holding their swords down. I suppose it represents (if it has any historical significance, and isn't purely heraldic) two formerly hostile human peoples forging a truce.
I'm not sure how to interpret these. The most obvious interpretation is that each frieze represents one of the emperors buried in the catacombs. But then, why is only one of the emperors represented in the top part of his frieze? And why do the flanking faces always look the same?
An alternative interpretation is that both friezes are of the same champion, in Hero and Leveller phases. In the first one, he's leading the forces of Light against the Dark, represented by the Ghols; in the second, two human groups are becoming allies against the new Leveller. The two side faces would lieutenants or subordinates of the champion, who followed him into the Dark when he became possessed.
The Summoner--Assorted forum notables have suggested that the horned skull carvings in the Tain are of Myrkridia, and that the "spider-woman" carvings are of Fetch, but I have my doubts. Krids don't have horns, and you most certainly wouldn't forget to include their teeth in a sculpture. Also, I don't think the lightning towers had anything to do with the Krids. In the first place, they'd be next to useless against a numerous enemy (remember, only one tower functions at a time) which is particularly resistant to lightning (both small and large Krids take less damage from lightning than from any other kind of attack). Secondly, the Smiths probably never encountered the Krids directly; if they had, they'd have been wiped out before they had a chance to build a sand castle, much less big electrical thingies. The towers were probably built when the Tain was being used by the Smiths for their cult ceremonies, either before they gave it to Connacht or after he finished with it (at which point the Krids were long dead, in the accelerated timeframe of the Tain), and intended for use against inquisitive humans or the assorted other strange races found in the Tain, which we know of from the skull platforms.
Concerning the Fetch: although we of course know little of their shape, we can see from their general outlines that they have roughly human proportions but are extremely gaunt, with relatively small features. They probably look a little like Myrmidons, plus the horns and spinal ridges. They *certainly* don't look like those spider-women, with their inhumanly long arms and fertility-goddess breasts and belly; unless they're shapeshifters, they'd never fit into a human skin and look like they do.
Doesn't it seem more likely that the skull-carvings are meant to represent Fetch, rather than Myrkridia? I mean, they're horned, skeletally-gaunt heads (but not, judging from the mouths, actual skulls) of beings that are apparently associated with lightning, since they're much more prominent on the towers, while the spider-women show up more on the gates. My thought is that the lightning towers use the same electrical spells that the Fetch were taught by their goddess(es); perhaps the Fetch even taught them to the Smiths personally. As long as the Fetch remained on the spider-world side, and spoke to the Smiths through gates like the ones in the TFL comic, I'd imagine they were safe from Wyrd's wrath.
As for the spider-women, I think those represent the spider-goddess herself (or themselves, if there's more than one.) That spider-woman birthing a skeletal being shows that the Fetch were either considered figuratively or believed literally to be the children of the spider-goddess.
Now, to the evidenceless stuff, after the rock-solid propositions, backed by reams of supported evidence, I've made so far. Let me just say that I don't even believe the following theory--it's just an interesting one that *might* contain some shred of truth.
Let's compare Fetch and Trow. Both are ancient and apparently immortal, save for death by violence; both seem to possess gender characteristics, although they don't breed as far as we know; each race seems to consist of only one gender; both are usually silent, extremely arrogant and largely amoral, taking no pleasure in killing or hurting others, but perfectly willing to do so when it furthers their ends; both are devoutly religious, but serve gods other than Wyrd, although they acknowledge his existence.
So what if Fetch and Trow are two halves of the same species?
Suppose that, back in the days before the Younger Races, the Fetch and the Trow formed the female and male halves of a single, viable race. Since they served Nyx, and kept kicking ass on the Wyrd-sent races that came every thousand years, Wyrd got extremely pissed; every year the chances of his producing a dominant race got smaller and smaller, as the TrowFetch population grew explosively. So Wyrd decided to nullify their reproductive capacity, by wiping the minds of the females (which is why the Fetch don't have any names--they don't remember them) and transporting them to another plane. Any stragglers he missed, he simply yanked up to the heavens and destroyed. Stuck in their new reality, the amnesiac Fetch found new gods to worship, meanwhile, the Trow began steadily to dwindle in number and, eventually, yielded mastery of the world to the prolific Younger Races. When Balor recovered some of the Fetch, (having learned about their world from examining the Tain) the Trow didn't recognize them, cloaked in human skins and wielding strange new lightning magics. Or mb the Trow had their memories wiped too, I dunno.
Well? Have I produced a good example of why we call this place the Asylum?
--SiliconDream
